Scientists at RIKEN have cracked the code on a mysterious arrangement of two water molecules that had only been theorized before. This breakthrough could have significant implications for various fields, from astrochemistry to how metals corrode. Their findings have been documented in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters.
Here's the science behind it: when an energetic particle or photon hits a water molecule, it can kick out an electron, creating a positive ion (H2O+). This ionization process can then set off a series of reactions with nearby molecules. Understanding how water ionization works is crucial for fields like biology, radiation chemistry, and the prevention of metal corrosion.
Predictions in the scientific community hinted that, after ionization, two forms of a positively charged water dimer might swiftly emerge. One has been witnessed before (H3O+·OH), formed when a proton moves from one water molecule to another. However, the other version, with a half-bond structure ((H2O·OH2)+), had never been observed or confirmed by spectroscopic measurements due to its higher energy levels.
Enter Susumu Kuma and the team at the RIKEN Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics Laboratory. They managed to isolate both water dimer ions by capturing them in tiny droplets of cold helium and using infrared spectroscopy to unravel their structures.
The secret was creating an ultracold environment, causing the water molecules in the helium droplets to cool rapidly. This cooling process led to the formation of the elusive half-bonded isomer within the cold droplets.
Kuma and his team then delved into the coexistence of these two isomers using computational and spectroscopic methods. The results showed that the molecular ions' spectroscopic signatures were nearly identical to bare ions, without helium around them. Kuma explains, "This finding indicates that we can directly compare measurements on the bare ions with results from quantum-chemical calculations, greatly facilitating the structural analysis of the dimers."
This breakthrough opens the door for more exploration in the field. According to Kuma, "The discovery of the hemibonded water cations will promote further studies of primary events that are important for understanding the radiation chemistry of water."
The RIKEN team is not stopping here. Their plan is to broaden the scope and size of water complex cations in helium droplets, hoping to uncover new, previously unseen chemical structures in the spectra. It's a step towards unraveling more of the mysteries that water molecules hold.
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